Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0194.jpg



FINE ARTS (EGYPTIAN)

668

FINE ARTS (ASSYRIAN)

water-color of very durable quality. The Chinese painter applied his art to such crafts as wood-engraving, decoration of pottery, lacquer and embroidery.

While the painting and sculpture of China furnished the inspiration of those arts in Japan, they never reached the high state of development that they did in the latter country. Literature, to the Chinese, seems to be the more natural medium of aesthetic expression. See William Anderson: Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Pictorial Art. EMMA M. CHURCH.

EGYPTIAN  ART

Egyptian Wall-Painting. Egyptian wall-painting is symbolical and decorative. Its first object was to tell the story of the king's life, public and domestic, his battles, triumphs, religious ceremonies and sacrifices and festivals. He was believed to be a relative of the ^ods, and therefore received devout tribute and praise from his loyal underlings. He made the laws, was the judge and declared war; in fact, everything was under his control.

Secondly, this painting was to decorate the wall-surface. It was always flat, never giving the effect of light and shade and never showing any perspective. The face of a human being was always painted in profile, while the shoulders were drawn in full front-view; and, again, the body was so twisted that the legs and feet were in profile. The feet and hands were always drawn flat. The drawing of the lower animals shows much more truth in portrayal. In most cases the artists caught the characteristic movements. In depicting landscapes the surface of their wall or paper was considered like a map, except that everything was drawn parallel to the picture-plane. Zigzag lines represented flat water, a tree a forest and a fortress a city. Flower-forms always were drawn generally and never in the particular (conventional as some may choose to term it), and used with great skill as decorative motives.

In composing, in order to make one figure the principal spot of interest, the artist drew it very much larger than all the rest. Hence we always find the kings like giants amongst pygmies when compared with their followers. The drawings were all made in outline and the enclosed spaces filled with bright color. The paintings were in most cases put upon the stone buildings, the pylons and the enclosing walls of the cities, temples, etc. Here the sculptor carved the outline in the stone, and then the color was applied to the drawing. The interiors of the tombs were always decorated in brilliant color, to brighten and enliven, and told the story of the deceased's domestic life. At first, in the painting, the story was merely told by the hieroglyphics with color painted into

the cuts, but later these stories were illustrated with symbolic pictures and flat color, and later were drawn not only upon stone but on various materials, as the wooden lids of mummy-chests, papyrus, etc., with an outline of black chalk or coal; and finally the bounded space was filled with color mixed with gum-water. See, also, PYRAMIDS; TEMPLE OF LUXOR; TEMPLE OF KARNAK; SPHINX and RAMESSION.

ASSYRIAN  ART

Architecture. Assyrian architecture is so closely allied with that of Chaldea or Babylonia that it is difficult to separate them. We might consider the two in one great style, as it is only by comparing the ruins of one with those of the other that we can make any headway in our study.

The Chaldeans in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, being overthrown by an invasion from the west in 1518 B. C., gave the Assyrians a chance to rise to supremacy and in 1273 B. C. they founded the great kingdom of Nineveh which held the ruling power for six and one half centuries in Asia.

The ruins of the buildings of these people are little more than undiscernible heaps of clay, except those found at Persepolis which are fairly well-preserved. Their almost complete destruction is due to the lack of any natural, durable material and to the lack of fuel which made fired brick very costly. Wood and stone had to be carried long distances, and therefore were very expensive and usually used only for ornamentation. Hence we find little refinement of form, no system of colonnades, no overhanging cornices or the like. Sun-dried bricks of clay, made of the viscous, adhesive soil, in blocks 12x12x2 or 4 inches were the most usual building-material. These bricks were often put into the building wet from the molds, and allowed, to bake in the structure. Sometimes lime and mortar were used as adhe-sives, but usually only bitumen.

The most important and distinguishing feature of this early architecture of Assyria is the wagon-vault or tunnel-vault, a prolonged arch of sun-dried bricks, raised obliquely from the walls and used to roof long halls, rooms, sewers and drains. In the rooms at brief intervals there were higher vaults for the admitting of light and air, shaped like semidomes. ^ Firebrick was used as an inner facing in the drains.

Columns were not commonly used, though sometimes they are found constructed of brick or sections of sun-dried clay. Galleries raised on columns for the admitting of light have been discovered.

The most important buildings were palaces, hanging gardens and temples. No tombs have been discovered, unless it be